Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

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That’s the question that has been floating around Markus White’s mind the past few weeks.

He got his answer Tuesday, when the Washington Redskins — reeling after the season-ending injury to outside linebacker Brian Orakpo last Sunday against the St. Louis Rams — signed White from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice squad to their active roster.

White, of course, is a familiar face to Redskins fans. He was selected by Washington in the seventh round of the 2011 NFL Draft and spent the entire season on the Redskins’ active roster, appearing in two games as an outside linebacker.

He remained with the team through the offseason and this preseason before he was waived by the Redskins during final cuts Aug. 31. He signed with the Buccaneers four days later and was headed on a path as a 4-3 defensive end before the Redskins came calling again with a need at outside linebacker.

“It’s good to be back,” White said. “It’s where I started out, and I didn’t feel like I fully accomplished everything I wanted to. Just being able to have another shot, I want to take advantage this time around.”

He knew he’d take some ribbing from his teammates for supporting the Miami Heat and their polarizing star, LeBron James, throughout the 2012 NBA playoffs, but Markus White has certainly had the last laugh.

And even days after the Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-106 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to capture their second title since 2006, White — the Redskins’ outside linebacker and Florida native — was still celebrating.

In the opening hours of free agency, the Redskins upgraded their receiver corps with speedy youngster Pierre Garçon, and drew the approval of another young player already on the team.

Outside linebacker Markus White is an old friend and teammate of Garçon’s, and actually learned a lot from the elder Floridian at John I. Leonard High School.

Back when White was entering high school (at the turn of the 21st century), he was a skilled basketball player trying to make the transition to football. Garçon was a senior tight end in the Mighty Lancers’ offense, and helped freshman tight end White make the transition to the gridiron.

“That was back before I hit my growth spurt,” explained the 6-4, 266-pound linebacker with a smile. “I was probably…170 back then, but I had pretty good hands.” Read more »

In any corporate setting, there is some sort of initiation–a right of passage, if you will–for the new guy to the company. It’s usually subtle or unspoken, but it’s always there.

In the NFL, subtlety isn’t necessary, as veterans are pretty straight forward with their demands: everyone goes out for a nice meal on the rookies’ tab. That was the deal for newbie linebackers Ryan Kerrigan and Markus White, anyway.

This morning, Doug Zaleski of Kerrigan’s hometown paper, the Muncie Star Press, wrote a piece on the linebacker and his night out with the boys: Read more »

It must be college football bowl season in the Redskins locker room, as intra-team smack talk has risen to a new level. Last night saw the resolution to the Holiday Bowl between Lorenzo Alexander’s Golden Bears and Brian Orakpo’s Longhorns.

Tonight’s matchup between Graham Gano’s Seminoles and Eric Olsen’s Fighting Irish in the Champs Sports Bowl has also yielded some wardrobe wagers: Read more »

A word of the wise to all future NFL rookies: don’t confess any hobbies or special talents. Rookie outside linebacker Markus White found that out the hard way.

One of the highlights of training camp after-hours, is the rookie talent performances.

While the rookies do get to show off some hidden abilities, the crowd is mostly as supportive as Stand Up at the Apollo.

“I think they want me to sing,” he said sheepishly. “I messed up and I told ’em that I sing all the time, so now they keep asking me to go up.”

White is currently proving his versatility on the football field by making the transition from defensive end to outside linebacker. According to him, he’s just as versatile behind the microphone.

“I can sing about anything, man,” he boasted. “I mean, I like a variety of singing from Usher to John Legend. I mean, it could be oldies, I like the hits. I like Earth, Wind and Fire, I can go way back. It just depends on what they want.”

Apologies to anyone reading this blog who considers Earth, Wind and Fire to be “way back.”

For right now, White has escaped the spotlight, thanks to the crowd of rookies in camp. He knows, however, that he can’t run forever. “Eventually, they’ll make me do it in the linebacker room.”

With training camp ending yesterday, players finally got a chance to reflect on their experiences in the last three weeks. Whether it was their first or fifteenth camp, players were excited to be there, and excited to be done with it.

One of the stars of training camp, was rookie defensive end Jarvis Jenkins. By all accounts, Jenkins had a great camp, and comes out of it as a more complete player.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he told me with a big smile. “It was kinda rough at first, it was kinda fast-paced without mini-camps and OTA’s. But I’m pretty sure I can fit in.”

Jenkins came in renowned as a bulldozer on the line, someone who can tie up blockers and shut down the running game. He assessed that he had improved in all areas. Read more »

The role of any defensive coordinator is to outfox the opposing offense and stop the team from scoring. Jim Haslett takes it one step further and tries to create turnovers and score on defense.

Today, the defense focused on drills that generate turnovers from the line and linebacker positions.

Check out the line drills below:

As you can hear, rookie defensive end Jarvis Jenkins (No. 99) drew the most praise from defensive line coach Jacob Burney. Jenkins is right in the thick of things for playing time on the line, and could be a contributor right away.

At the same time, the linebackers were practicing interceptions in coverage. Linebackers coach Lou Spanos would lob a ball and call out “Ball!” when it reached it’s peak. The linebackers had to turn and identify the ball and try to make a play on it.

Many of the players who are comfortable in coverage looked good in this drill. Converted defensive ends Ryan Kerrigan, Brian Orakpo, and Markus White struggled a little bit in this drill.

Linebackers Rocky McIntosh and Rob Jackson did pretty well.

Check out the video below:

I did appreciate that Spanos missed the pass back from Fletcher when the drill ended.